Overview

This bronze mirror is blackish brown with a back that may possibly have been coated with black lacquer. Its reflective face has been plated with tin. The basic form of the knob surround is that of pistils spread out around the knob like petals of a flower, but the surround is mounded up into a shallow dome, and the heads of the pistils around the circumference look like a string of jewels, making this surround markedly different from the standard type.

The combination of flowing water and scattered chrysanthemums drifting on the stream derives from the Chinese legend of Kiku Jidô ("Chrysanthemum Youth"). According to this story, whoever drinks the dew that forms on chrysanthemum petals attains eternal youth and immortality. As an auspicious motif symbolizing long life, flowing water, and chrysanthemums have been employed as a design in the applied arts through the early Modern period (1593-1868). A mirror in the collection of the Tokyo National Museum, excavated from an abandoned temple in Ueno, Yamaguchi Prefecture, with a dated inscription corresponding to 1331 (Gentoku 3), is well known as an early example of this motif used on bronze mirrors. Judging from the knob surround and the style of the chrysanthemum blossoms, the date of this mirror probably falls between that of Mirror with Bamboo Hedge, Chrysanthemums, and Pair of Sparrows (EK17-36) and Mirror with Chrysanthemum Branches and Pair of Sparrows (EK17-29) in the museum's collection and the mirror from the abandoned temple in Ueno dated 1331.